[MA-53]

Dodging as quickly and as much as he could, Saelel gained enough altitude for a fatal fall, and dropped his screaming baggage, letting him fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. Still, dodging the fireballs, Saelel dove towards the cloaked figure...

[Darkness]

Unfortunately, the myrmidon did not scream, and nor did he crumple on the ground as a tangle of broken limbs. For though the dark cloaked man showed no compassion, this certain myrmidon had shown loyalty to him in the past, and great strength. That was not something he would waste. Waving his staff, a glyph appeared directly on the ground beneath the falling myrmidon, which he promptly fell and vanished through.

[MA-53]

Saelel did not veer off his course. As the cloaked man saved his myrmidon a great deal of pain, Saelel continued to soar directly at him. Now much closer, Saelel transformed again into his lion form, and fell at the man, claws at the ready.

[Darkness]

The dark cloaked man blasted a pair of fireballs directing at the lion, which was now falling directly at him.

[MA-53]

There really wasn't much Saelel could do but continue his plummet. His divine natural protection shielded him entirely from the first fireball, but the second singed his fur and whiskers. Scorched as he was, his fall continued, and he hit the cloaked man.

[Darkness]

As the two fireballs hit the lion, the dark cloaked man knew that neither would stop the beast from still being about to hit him. At the last possible moment, he wrapped his magic about himself, vanishing from the spot and appearing several yards away...

[MA-53]

Saelel hit the ground hard, but well. Turning once more to his natural human form, Saelel gripped his staff in both hands and looked at his enemy.

With somewhat renewed energy, and fully renewed resolve, Saelel reached into the pattern of the world and found his storm again. Coulds converged and water fell. It was time to finish this fight.

[Darkness]

The dark cloaked man knelt to one knee, putting his left hand on the sand before him. Closing his eyes and bowing his head, he stood suddenly, bring his arms above him, palms facing up. With a great rumbling sound, a great sphere several yards above his head seemed to... exist. It did not seem to be tangible; it was almost as if it was only a shimmering of light. But the shimmering grew. The rumbling grew louder... It seems to be coming from beneath the battle, beneath the sands!

And then sand exploded upwards, in great waves that seem almost like water... And from beneath the sand comes great pieces of metal, which revolve around the strange sphere like planets around the sun. The sphere must be some... great magnetic center...

[MA-53]

Saelel's semi ferrous pocket change came flying out of his robe and flew towards the sphere. Weaving more energy to his storm, he suddenly saw a disastrous effect the magnetic sphere was having on it: Great, blinding bolts of lightning were streaming nearly constantly out of the clouds, drawn to the magnetic power that was the sphere. The metal being collected at its center was flash melted, and the once dark orb took on an orange and white luminescence, as the now liquid metal spun about its chaotic path.

But a storm was good for more than lightning.

In the midst of the bombarding thunder, sizzling lightning, torrential rain, and the mass accumulating above his adversary's head, Saelel's calling was not audible, but call he did. The clouds above began to coalesce and whirl around in a circle, and soon a mighty hurricane descended, not far from the dueling mages. The wind howled, and the rain whipped about the pair erratically as this new formation roared towards the cloaked figure.

[Darkness]

Tying off the magic that had been used to create the magnet, he made sure that it could sustain itself with the energy it had built up for half a minute. With a great heaving of his body, the dark cloaked man flung the orb and its contents at his adversary. It was a very powerful attack, to be using the forces of magnetism as such. And though it could have been much stronger, he had no time. He had to do something to divert the hurricane that was now coming towards him. The wind whipped his cloak around, the rain drenching it.

He drew in more of his magic, more of the power, more, and more, and more, until it almost consumed him in the glory and light that seemed to fill him in his mind... And reaching out, he grasped hold of the storm, and the magic that had been used to create it, the magic that was still linked to the druid. He could feel that link... Like a long, spidery web connecting storm and mage. And he severed it. A great blade of magic he summoned, severing connection between the storm and its creator. Hopefully, this would stop the storm in time to end the hurricane before it hit him...

[MA-53]

Saelel felt what the cloaked man was doing, and had time to do little more than simply be horrified before he had to focus on the large collection of molten metal flying directly at him. He reached down in to the earth, finding the delicate web of veins of metal spread out under the ground of all of earthia, and did something he would only do if his life was in complete mortal danger. He reterraformed all of the ferrous metals in the world, drastically altering Earthia's magnetic field.

Suddenly the sphere's behavior changed entirely, it swung in a wide arch, attracted to the ground away from Saelel, with an immolated splash, the molten metal hit the sand, boiling rainwater, cooling, and glassing the area. All around the site now lay a close cousin to volcanic obsidian glass.

Having safely neutralized the magnetic force, Saelel reformed the veins of metal in the earth to once again be in their natural and rightful places. The only side effect of his workings would be confused sailors and even more confused birds. But they would right themselves, and so would Saelel.

But now the druid was faced with a new problem: The cloaked man, in his attempt to stop the storm, had, in fact, separated the storm from Saelel's control, and from the pattern of the world. The storm raged just as powerful as he had made it, but now it was free from its natural restrictions. Saelel looked at it in horror.

He knew there was only one option left.

"You have severed the storm from the grand pattern of the world!" He yelled to the cloaked man. "If it is not stopped by us, it will rage on forever, wreaking havoc upon this world. Neither of us alone can tame this storm, we must work together. When the storm is quelled we may settle our battle!"

[Darkness]

... It might not have stopped the storm, but it stopped the hurricane coming towards him. It rambled off in a seemingly random direction, not towards him. He had anticipated that once created, a druid's storm still relied on its creator's power to survive, but apparently it was able to maintain itself once it existed. But when the druid first made his proposal, the dark cloaked man almost scoffed. He did not care what happened to the world.

"I'm sorry, but I will have to decline. This storm could lay waste to half the cities of Telan, and I would barely spare them a glance."

Once more, the dark cloaked man spun his staff in a circle. Above his head appeared a glyph... three times larger than that which brought forth the dragon. A great roar, reminding those who heard of glass breaking underfoot, breaking bones, the roaring of flames, and the growl of a dragon all at once, emanated through the giant portal.

[MA-53]

Realizing what was about to happen, Saelel acted quickly. He closed his eyes. His vision of the physical world would not avail him in his current situation. He gazed instead upon the waves, curves, and lines of the pattern of the world. He searched deep and found his adversary, and saw the spell he was conjuring, and with his will sent a very potent and simple message:

No.

With that Saelel cut the cloaked figure's ability to use magic. He did not sever this link entirely, that it might heal in time, but he dealt with the threat at hand.

Opening his eyes again, he was left looking at a strange scene. A toppled glass figure of a golem. A trail carved in the sand by a hurricane. A lake of glass and iron. A cloaked figure.

The time for spells had past. Saelel could do no more, and by the looks of things, neither could the cloaked figure.

Saelel instead brandished his staff and paced slowly towards his oponent.

[Darkness]

The dark cloaked man was blasted backwards as his control of his powerful magics was severed from him. Raising himself up off the ground, he gazed towards his opponent, bracing himself for defeat, for death, for utter destruction. But it did not come. He studied his enemy closer. He was exhausted... as the dark cloaked man himself was. Had he expended his own ability to use magic just as he severed the ability from his enemy? The dark cloaked man knew that he himself would not have much longer been able to cast spells, due to the immense stress each one puts on the caster. It was amazing, and proved a testament to both spell casters' power, that either of them had managed as long as they had.

It was obvious the battle was not over yet. The dark cloaked man did not intend to admit defeat until hope of victory was forcibly torn from him, and that was not yet. Both men could no longer cast magic, at least for the next several hours, but there were other ways to fight past the ways of the arcane. The dark cloaked man frowned on those ways, claiming them barbaric, imprecise, or inelegant. Yes, he did indeed prefer to do battle using the powers of magic. But he would -- and had been trained to -- use other means to fight once all chance of magic was lost.

Saelel paced slowly towards him, and the dark cloaked man sidestepped in a circle, keeping the enemy in his view, right before him, at all times. A good ten paces separated the two men.

[MA-53]

Saelel circled with the cloaked man, slowly closing the 10 pace distance to 9 paces, and then 8, and slowly down until he was only 4 paces away from his opponent.

Grimacing, Saelel made a half jump towards the cloaked man, and swung his staff in a wide, horizontal arc...